Welcome back to that Tuesday, our Shemirat HaLashon session, proper speech. I have a little chidush (novel insight) here for you. Chafetz Chaim has what we call double trouble.
Good morning, Joe. We missed you this morning. I saw you later. There we go—the alarm clock excuse. You know what Adam said the first time? He said, “My wife.” Okay, Chafetz Chaim says we should not believe Lashon Hara (evil speech). We’ve been through this several times. It’s one thing to speak it; it kills the speaker, it kills the victim, but it also kills the listener. The listener has heard it already; it’s already entered his ears, the waves have entered his brain, and his brain has computed what was said. It was negative information about a kosher (upstanding) Jew. There’s a problem. You’re not allowed to believe it.
When a person speaks Lashon Hara, he violates lo telech rachil be'amecha. He violates that famous “don’t go as a peddler amongst your people.” Now, if he does violate that command, especially if he does it on a regular basis, he moves from kosher Jew to Rasha (wicked person). And as a Rasha, his words, value, and credibility are reduced. Therefore, we as listeners can suspect this person who’s speaking negatively about somebody of lying, exaggerating, or, as they’re so good at doing in today’s media, distorting the truth. Furthermore, this wicked person is telling us negative information about someone who is under the assumption or presumption of being an upstanding Jew. We should certainly not accept negative information about a kosher Jew.
Now, let’s go a bit further. What about—and this is where the lesson really begins? We knew all that from our weekly session. If we hear the same negative information from two or more people, now we do know that in Judaism, two is like a hundred: al pi shnayim edim yakum davar, two witnesses giving verifiable or non-contradictory testimony; their testimony is considered true. And even if a hundred come after, they can’t overrule the two. So now, let’s say I heard something negative from two or more people. You may be inclined to believe it. And, as usual, Chafetz Chaim says that’s not true. Because when wicked people speak wicked words, quantity is not quality. Their numbers are meaningless. Even if a dozen people offer the same derogatory information, you can’t accept it.
Now he adds that this halakha—that numbers do not verify—applies even when the two speakers are not considered resha'im. For example, let’s say Levi is walking down the street, and Reuven and Shem come back and tell us, “You know, Yehuda is out to ruin you.” Levi asks, “What?” They answer, “He’s out to ruin your business.” Now, if they are telling the truth, warning Levi could be a mitzvah (commandment). Nevertheless, Levi as the listener has a different obligation. He can take caution. He can take precautions, but he can’t believe that it’s 100% true that Yehuda is out to ruin his business, steal his customer, or, in the woman’s world, take the chadame.
This is because the rule about two people that I quoted has validity in a Beit Din (Jewish court of law). If you have a Beit Din and one person comes and testifies, a Jewish Beit Din is not like a movie. It’s not like a goy (non-Jew) Beit Din: “I saw it, and he did it.” It could be his wife. It could be a relative. It could be his son. It could be a stranger. It could be his enemy. But if they have testimony, and they ask a few questions and interrogate the witness, they say it sounds like it’s true. He answered all the questions. They can accept one. But in the Jewish court of law, you must have two. And the two are separated. And the two are questioned. The two are asked many different questions so that, if they’re not telling the truth, they will be uncovered.
However, you should be very aware that that’s a Beit Din. A Beit Din has the rule, but outside a Beit Din, there’s something missing. Why would two people not lie in a Beit Din and get caught between the two of them with some type of contradictory evidence? Because they’ll be known as a very negative, dishonest category of person: a false witness. When they’re not in court, who’s checking, who’s certifying, who’s denying, who’s upending their false testimony? Therefore, since there’s no safeguard against them lying, even two is not considered adequate, and therefore, if it’s Lashon Hara, even if it’s two, even if it’s ten, even if it’s a hundred, you’re not allowed to believe it.
Now let’s say a rumor circulates that a Jew committed a crime. By the way, the goyim love that. They love a chassid (pious Jew) pictured on the front page of the New York Post, claiming either his nursing home or his business or something is bad with him. Reports in newspapers or other media, which at one point in time were considered emet la'amito (truth in its truest form). “I saw it in the New York Times.” “No, it was in the Post this morning.” Oh, the Post could tell you how many hits the guy got last night. The boss could tell you, you know, the price of gold, which is a verifiable fact. But testimony from a newspaper, accusations from a newspaper, statements that seem very true and very definite from a newspaper, a radio, or a Twitter account are all subject to doubt. You’re not allowed to accept them. And a person who does accept them is considered to be accepting Lashon Hara. And the fact that you heard it from that type of source, which you think is valid—Baruch Hashem, in the last few years we see how much lying, how much twisting, how much of what they say is not only not verifiable, it’s out and out false.
So therefore, if it’s about a kosher Jew, an otherwise kosher Jew, we’re not allowed to believe it. And it doesn’t matter how many. Now, there are certain cases where a person who hears this type of information may believe negative reports. If there’s an abundance of reports circulating over a period of time, telling about certain sinful acts, dishonest acts that he committed, to where he would be categorized below an observant Jew, in the category we call Rasha, then it’s permitted to believe the statement about Rasha, as the Chafetz Chaim says we’re not required to believe that the community was so wrong so many times over so long a period of time and made the same mistake again and again and again. Rather, at that point in time, the person lost their assumption of innocence. We say, “Innocent until proven guilty.” That’s for a person who is otherwise innocent. But “innocent until proven guilty” is not applicable when the guilt claim, the claim of misconduct, has been repeated from many sources over a long time. Then you have a right to believe it. If you don’t want to believe it, you’re stubborn in trying to keep the laws we’re talking about in this case. You may take precautionary action. You may cancel doing business with them. You may call off a bazaar, a shiduch, a match. You may cancel a partnership or a sale or a purchase. Based on the information, you have a right to believe it, just to protect yourself from the damage in case it’s true.
But again, we have to apply all the rules that we’ve been learning week in, week out in this session in order to come away clean without violating the laws of proper speech. And today we learned the laws of proper listening, which require rejection of Lashon Hara, except under very special circumstances.